Settled in his private living quarters, attached to the headmaster's office, Severus was curled up on the sofa in front of the fire with Rosmerta. The pair were discussing their engagement, and when they could possibly get married.

"How about a beach wedding over the summer," Rosmerta suggested with a sly smile.

"I am not a beach person," Severus replied, knowing his fiancée was merely winding him up with the idea of getting married on a beach.

"You are a bit pasty without your clothes on," Rosmerta agreed.

"Complaining, are you?" Severus asked, raising an eyebrow at his lover.

"What can I say, I'm not that fussed by an all over tan," Rosmerta replied cheekily.

"We could always try and get one on honeymoon if we go somewhere private," Severus said.

"I thought you weren't a beach person," Rosmerta chuckled.

"I'm not, but I might make an exception if it was just the two of us on some private beach," Severus replied.

"That actually sounds rather appealing," Rosmerta said with a smile. "I can just imagine the fun we can have on a private beach with no clothes on."

"Me too," Severus replied with a grin, before swooping down and connecting his lips with his fiancée's.

Just as Severus slipped his hand under Rosmerta's skirt, there was a knock on the door that led from his office. Severus knew whoever was knocking had gained access to his office first, which meant it was either a member of staff with a problem, or it was Harry or Hermione. Knowing he couldn't ignore it, no matter who it was, Severus reluctantly broke away from his fiancée and went to answer the door. When he did open the door, Harry came barrelling into the room at top speed.

"Sorry to interrupt," Harry said, quickly taking in Rosmerta's slightly dishevelled clothing and averting his eyes. "We've got a problem."

"Could this not have waited until tomorrow?" Severus asked his son.

"No, this is urgent," Harry replied. "Draco's gone to get Lucius, and Hermione is fetching Beth. We should also call Grandpa. He needs to hear this."

"I think that's my cue to leave," Rosmerta announced as she got to her feet.

"You don't have to go," Severus said. "You're family now, you can stay."

"I hope you won't be offended if I say I would rather leave," Rosmerta replied. "I don't have a problem with anything your family does, but I don't think I'm ready to be involved in anything untoward. Besides, I should go and check on the pub before closing."

"I'll come and see you later," Severus promised his fiancée as he pulled her into his arms to say a proper goodbye.

Harry averted his eyes from the sight of his father in a heated embrace with Rosmerta. Even though he was happy for the couple, he didn't need to see them snogging like teenagers. Luckily, it was just a brief goodbye and Rosmerta flooed back to the pub, leaving Harry and Severus alone.

"What's going on?" Severus asked as he connected the floo to his father's house.

"It'll be easier if I wait until everyone's here," Harry replied. "That way I'm not repeating myself."

Fortunately, it didn't take long for everyone to arrive. Draco and Lucius arrived moments before Beth and Hermione, and they'd no sooner arrived than the fire lit up and Voldemort emerged. Surprisingly, Voldemort wasn't the only external visitor as he was followed by Narcissa. Voldemort quickly explained that he'd been having a drink with Narcissa at the time of Severus's call, and since she was one of his most trusted friends, he thought it only right that she should be involved with whatever was going on.

"So what is going on, Harry?" Hermione asked, eager to get going now everyone had arrived.

"I followed Ginny and Ron back to the room after dinner," Harry began. "They went into the junk room, where the vanishing cabinet is."

"They were looking for the cabinet?" Lucius asked.

"Worse, they were looking for the diadem," Harry supplied. "The Order know about the Horcruxes and it even sounded as though they had a couple in their possession."

"That's impossible," Severus muttered. "You said yourself, Harry, Dumbledore hadn't mentioned them to anyone but you."

"He clearly lied to me," Harry replied with a snarl. Even though he'd been playing Dumbledore, it annoyed him to learn the old man had deceived him. "I don't know how they know, but the Order know about the Horcruxes. Ron and Ginny were heading off to send a letter to the Order to let them know they needed to destroy the ones they had in their possession."

While Harry was explaining about his discoveries, Voldemort's mind had turned to Mundungus Fletcher. After deciding to get the petty thief on side, he'd set Ezra Greengrass onto it. For the last few months, Ezra had been passing information he'd received from Mundungus, and never once had Horcruxes been mentioned. Either Mundungus was holding out on them, or else he hadn't been involved in the Order's quest to destroy his Horcruxes. Although, given the fact he already knew Mundungus wasn't particular trusted by the Order, Voldemort was leaning towards the latter. Chances were the wizard was telling Ezra everything he knew, he just didn't know something as important as the Order discovering he had Horcruxes.

"How many could they possibly have?" Narcissa asked, bringing Voldemort's attention back to the conversation in hand.

"Two at the most," Voldemort answered, making a mental note to speak to Ezra about Mundungus and the information they were getting from him. "I had six, then we destroyed the diary four years ago. I've recently regained the diadem, and Lucius, do you still have that silver cup I gave you all those years ago?"

"It's safely tucked away at our French penthouse," Lucius supplied. "No-one could have gotten to it."

"That leaves the locket and the ring," Voldemort mused. "The ring was at my mother's old house, while the locket was in a cave. It's conceivable the Order could have one or both of those."

"You've missed one," Hermione pointed out. "If one's already gone, two are accounted for and two are potentially missing, that makes five. You said you had six."

"And the sixth one is right here," Beth said, holding up her right hand and jingling the emerald bracelet she always wore.

"I thought the bracelet was a Granger family heirloom," Hermione said with a frown. She knew her mother had inherited the bracelet on her wedding day, and when Hermione got married, she would then become the owner of the bracelet.

"It is, but I let your father use it to make his final Horcrux shortly after our wedding," Beth answered. "So three of the Horcruxes are safe."

"And as long as they're safe, I can't be killed," Voldemort concluded.

"So that's it?" Harry asked in disbelief. "We're just going to do nothing?"

"I never said that, Harry," Voldemort replied with a smirk. "I'm just pointing out that things aren't as grave as they could have been. However, we will be taking action. I think it's time we paid the Order a visit."

"But none of us can tell you where the headquarters are," Hermione pointed out. "We tried, but Dumbledore had some sort of secrecy spell on the name of the place."

"You might not have been able to tell us the name of the place, but Harry did give us some information to work with," Voldemort said. "He told us that the headquarters were based in Sirius's childhood home."

"And?" Draco asked with a shrug, not getting the significance of the information Harry had been able to pass on.

"And Sirius is my cousin," Narcissa reminded her son. "I know exactly where he grew up. We're heading to number Twelve Grimmauld Place."

"Are you saying you've known the whereabouts of the Order all this time?" Hermione gasped. "Why haven't we struck before now?"

"I was waiting for the opportune time," Voldemort replied. "And tonight is the opportune time. Narcissa, can you get us inside?"

"I can, but we're going to need help," Narcissa replied. "I'm going to need Bellatrix. Together we can get into the house and disable the wards hiding it from view. You can then come in and do your stuff."

"I think I'll bring the Carrows and the Lestrange brothers in on it as well," Voldemort mused. "The more the merrier."

"We're also coming," Hermione said forcefully. "If we're taking the Order out, we want in."

"Yeah, we're not missing out on the action," Draco added.

"Bring it on," Harry cheered with a malicious grin.

"I'm not sure I like the idea of bringing you three to a full on battle," Beth said cautiously. "This won't be like the last confrontation with the Order. We're going in to attack and destroy. There will be fighting."

"We can fight," Hermione insisted. "Please, Daddy," She pleaded, turning her large brown eyes on her father. "Give us a chance to prove ourselves."

"If your mother agrees, you can come," Voldemort told his daughter. "And as for Harry and Draco, they need the permission of their parents. I can't speak for Severus, Lucius and Narcissa."

Immediately the three teenagers turned to their parents. Hermione quickly wore Beth down, and got her mother to agree to her accompanying them to deal with the Order. Draco was the next one to get his parents on board, and finally Harry persuaded Severus to let him join in the fun.

"The three of you can come, but make sure you're careful," Voldemort warned. "If any of you mess up, you'll not be joining in on anything else for a long time."

"We won't screw up," Hermione vowed. "So what's the plan?"

"Narcissa and Bellatrix will get us to outside of the house," Voldemort explained. "They'll then use the fact they're blood relatives to enter the house and drop the necessary wards for us to enter. I want to try and get my Horcruxes back if I can, so please try and limit the damage to the house. It'll be easier to search if it's in one piece. Once we've got control of the situation, I can protect the house so no-one from the Order can re-enter."

"And what about the people in the house?" Harry asked. "Sirius will definitely be there, and quite possibly Remus and Tonks as well."

"I want Black alive," Voldemort replied. "We might need him to tell us where the Horcruxes are if they prove tricky to find. Besides, I think it's time he went back to Azkaban. He is a wanted criminal after all, and think of what a positive effect it will have on Nott's regime if he's responsible for recapturing a mass murderer like Sirius Black."

"But he escaped last time," Draco pointed out. "What if he does it again?"

"You're forgetting Draco, we know how he escaped and we've got measures in place to stop it happening again," Voldemort replied with a smirk. "The second Nott took over as Minister he overhauled the security at Azkaban."

"You've been waiting for this moment," Harry stated. "You've always intended on capturing Sirius and returning him to Azkaban."

"I have," Voldemort replied with a nod. "Sometimes death isn't the worst thing that can happen to a person. I think it's worse for Black to go back to Azkaban, where he can spend the rest of his life thinking about the mistakes he made and the people he's lost."

"So Black isn't to be touched, but everyone else is fair game?" Lucius checked.

"Leave Black to me, and have fun with everyone else," Voldemort replied with a smirk. "By the time we've finished tonight, the Order will be in no shape to carry on fighting against us."

"When do we leave?" Hermione asked, eager to get going and finally see some real action.

"Patience Hermione," Voldemort chuckled. "I need to brief the others, and you three need alibis for tonight. I don't want people to realise you're not in school."

"No problem, the guys will lie for me and say I was in the dorm all night," Draco said.

"It's not going to be so easy for us," Harry admitted, sharing a questioning look with Hermione in the hopes that she could come up with the answer to their problem.

"I can manage it," Hermione said thoughtfully. "If I say I'm going to bed early and pull the curtains around the bed, no-one will check. Everyone will assume I'm just in there sleeping. I can then sneak out of the dorms, and Harry can get us out with the invisibility cloak."

"Yeah," Harry agreed with a nod. "And I can do the same thing. Ron wouldn't have thought twice about pulling the curtains on my bed before, but not now. If they're shut now, no-one bothers me. I can play the same trick as Hermione, say I'm going to bed, pull my curtains and sneak out."

"In that case, you've got an hour," Voldemort told the trio. "Be back here in an hour and you can floo to the manor. We'll then head to Grimmauld Place and deal with the Order."

Bursting with excitement the trio left the adults to finish getting sorted as they hurried out of Severus's office. Exchanging quick goodbyes, Harry and Hermione headed to Gryffindor Tower while Draco raced down to the dungeons to sort his alibi. As predicated, the trio found it exceptionally easy to get back to Severus's office within the hour.

Draco confided in a couple of his friends that he had something to do for Voldemort, and he asked them to cover for him. Of course they agreed, and as far as anyone in the castle was concerned, Draco was safely tucked up in the boys' dorms down in the dungeons. As for Harry and Hermione, they both found it very easy to fake an early night. All they had to do was just shut the curtains around the beds and sneak back out of Gryffindor Tower under the invisibility cloak.

"Here we go," Harry whispered excitedly as the trio re-met outside of Severus's office.

"Scared?" Hermione asked the two boys, flashing them a devious smile.

"Excited," Draco corrected. "I can't wait to experience some real Death Eater action."

Harry and Hermione echoed his sentiments and with an air of excitement building between them, the trio headed into Severus's office to get ready for the evening's festivities. Finally, they were going to be exploring the more dangerous side of supporting Voldemort, and none of them could wait for what the night had in store for them. It was certainly going to be a night to remember.